Naphtha Price Trend and Forecast

Regional Price Overview

Get the latest insights on price movement and trend analysis of Naphtha in different regions across the world (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa).

For the First Half of 2022

Asia

Naphtha prices kept on the higher end of the scale in the Chinese domestic market during Q1. The resurgence of covid-19 caused the government to impose temporary restrictions on industrial activity. This severely impacted industrial production, thereby depleting inventories and creating shortages. The robust downstream demand from the medical and pharmaceutical sector supported the higher quotations of Naphtha, averaging 1363 USD/MT.

The prices in the Indian market were stable as compared to the Chinese domestic market, as cheap raw materials were readily available from Russia via cheap imports. With Russian imports readily entering the Chinese domestic market during the second quarter, coupled with the upliftment of pandemic-related shutdowns, naphtha prices fell across the market.

Europe

The petrochemical industry was heavily impacted due to the Russian-Ukrainian geopolitical conflict. With a majority of European countries directly dependent on Russian supplies for more than 50% of their energy needs, the sanctions against Russian exports triggered a staggering energy crisis in Europe.

The solid demand from downstream polyethene and polypropylene industries further supported the high prices of Naphtha. However, these higher prices led to demand destruction giving rise to cautious wait-and-see buying activity. Hence, naphtha prices fell towards the end of the second quarter.

North America

Naphtha prices readily increased throughout the US domestic market during the first quarter, given the soaring prices of crude oil and natural gas. The manufacturers raised their respective quotations to cushion their profits amid high downstream demand. However, the second quarter couldn’t keep up with the gained momentum in prices in the first quarter per the relinquished demand surge.

Analyst Insight

According to Procurement Resource, naphtha prices will likely crash further on the back of copious supplies as OPEC+ has changed their supply policies. Moreover, the demand for downstream plastics and polymers has gone drab and feeble.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of Naphtha. Each price database is tied to a user-friendly graphing tool dating back to 2014, which provides a range of functionalities: configuration of price series over user defined time period; comparison of product movements across countries; customisation of price currencies and unit; extraction of price data as excel files to be used offline.